Caring for a family means wearing multiple hats. You’re a chaperone, taxicab, advisor, caretaker, and cook. After a while, it can become exhausting. You’re overwhelmed and have little time for yourself. Add in a few challenges, such as a day when nothing seems to go your way, and healthy meals become an afterthought. You grab whatever’s easiest, which sometimes means dialing for takeout. The kids might be momentarily happy, but the guilt starts to creep in. You’d rather serve something nutritious. Regardless of how busy life is, busy Moms can save time and still eat healthily with the right approach.
How Busy Moms Can Save Time and Still Eat Healthy
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Grocery Delivery
Between meal planning, making grocery lists, and shopping, you can spend hours each week you don’t have. When you’re faced with a stressful, fast-paced lifestyle, takeout isn’t the only way to get your meals delivered. You could rely on healthy grocery delivery services instead.
Some of these services provide weekly menus so you don’t have to do as much planning. Browse through recipes, selecting dishes the family will like. Stock up on snacks like pre-made smoothies, air-popped popcorn, and trail mix. You’ll get fresh produce, organic foods, and even chickpea flour cookie dough delivered to your door.
Grocery delivery saves you the hassle of driving to the store and back. There’s no fighting traffic or wasting time going up and down aisles in search of the items on your list. Everything arrives pre-portioned to your family’s weekly needs. You can even add a few pre-made heat-and-serve meals for the busiest days.
Simple Snacks
When the kids are hungry, they’re going to come straight to you. They’ll ask for a quick bite or if they can check to see what’s in the fridge. If they’re younger, their voices may be a little more demanding. And when you’ve got what seems like a million tasks on your plate, whipping up a three-course meal isn’t going to happen.
Stocking the fridge and pantry with good-for-you, simple snacks gives everyone something satisfying to munch on. While snacking sometimes gets a bad rap, it doesn’t have to lead to weight gain or unhealthy choices. It all depends on what you snack on and how often.
Foods, such as fruit, vegetables, hard-boiled eggs, and Greek yogurt, fall into the healthy category. They’re easy to prep ahead of time and keep stocked in the fridge for later. You can also portion out mixes of seeds and nuts or protein bars in the pantry. Put these foods in place of processed items like chips and cookies. When you’ve got grab-and-go snacks on hand, you can keep the family’s hunger at bay with nutritious choices.
Pre-Cut Produce
Chopping, peeling, slicing, and dicing. It’s what people used to do before pre-cut produce made its way into the stores. While some individuals still prefer to prep their fruits and veggies, it’s a time hog. When you’ve got a full workday and chores waiting for you at home, every moment counts.
Buying pre-cut and frozen produce lets you skip most of the prep. It’s much easier to heat up a stir fry mix in the skillet and mix pre-sliced strawberries into a smoothie. Pre-cut produce also works well for making sheet pan meals, soups, and crockpot dishes.
You’re not compromising nutritional value by buying frozen, either. You can set those worries aside. Besides saving you prep time, frozen produce also keeps longer. You may find yourself saving money since there’s less waste. Frozen fruit also makes a great summer snack instead of sugar-laden ice cream or popsicles.
Double Up
Pick a day when your schedule is less hectic. Use it to double up on recipes for the week. Say you’ve got a casserole planned for Tuesday. You can cook twice the normal amount and plan on serving it on Friday, too. Certain meals, like casseroles, keep well in the freezer for later.
Batch cooking is another way to get your meal prep out of the way before the chaos begins. Besides casseroles, freeze-friendly meals include soups, chili, and pre-made protein waffles or pancakes. Foods that will keep in the fridge for a few days are also candidates for batch cooking.
Scrambled eggs and omelets will stay fresh for up to four days as long as you store them in an airtight container. You could batch cook scrambled eggs for breakfast burritos, along with the potatoes and other fillings of your choice. It’s also possible to assemble them for the week, wrap them in foil, and store them in an airtight container. This way, the family can grab and heat them up as needed.
Combining Healthy Eating With a Hectic Schedule
When you feel like you’re running from one task to another, cooking nutritious meals for the family seems impossible. You’re exhausted just thinking about it. So, you rely on shortcuts like drive-thru dinners and throwing together whatever’s in the pantry.
But healthy meals can be convenient and not take up as much time as you think. With strategies such as grocery delivery and batch cooking, you can save yourself from making last-minute decisions. You’ll have nutritious foods and meals ready to go, regardless of how many other items are on your to-do list. The kids will stay happy, and you might just be able to carve out the me-time you need.
